Tiger Divers Finish 1-2 at Nationals

March 14, 2007

It was “Double Vision” at the NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on March 15 in Houston as twins Jonathan and Robert Dohring ’08 of Glendale, Calif. finished first and second in the 1-meter diving competition, bringing Occidental its first national champion in swimming and diving since 1978.

Robert Dohring led the competition until the final dive and held a sizable 28-point advantage after the semifinals. Jon Dohring crept to within a point and a half after the first five dives of the finals and nailed his last attempt, a back 1½ somersault with a 1½ twist, to eclipse his brother by less than four points, 457.45 -- 453.70.

"It [the win]'s great. All year in our conference we've been going one and two, so I'm glad it happened again in the most important meet," Jon told CSTV.com. "But I would have been happy if he got first and I got second."

Earlier this season, Jon edged Robert by half a point at the SCIAC championships Feb. 15-17 in Cerritos, Calif. and won the 3-meter competition by 1½ points over Mark Emanuel of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Robert placed fourth on the 1m and third on the 3m last year at Nationals.

The duo goes into the final rounds of the 3-meter diving competition on Saturday in second (Robert) and fifth place (Jon) after competing in Friday's prelims. Also on Friday, two-time All-American Dickson Fai '08 swam a season-best 51.88 in his best event, the 100 backstroke, good for 12th place. He is scheduled to swim in the 200 backstroke Saturday.

Fai, whose previous best of 52.16 in the 100 backstroke gave him the 16th fastest time in NCAA Division III prior to Friday's race, competed in the same heat as national leader John Thomas of Johns Hopkins (50.56). Fai finished sixth in the 100 backstroke at Nationals last year and holds both the school and conference records in the event (50.49).

Occidental is currently 11th in the team standings with 37 points. For more information, visit the Division III championship meet results website.